A Digital Video Recorder (DVR) (also known as a Personal Video Recorder (PVR)) is an electronic device that records video in a digital format to store in a local storage medium, such as a hard disk drive. As such, the DVR provides time-shifted viewing of broadcast television programs or events for end-users. For example, end-users may record a television program in real-time and then watch the recorded television program later at their own convenience. Typically, the DVR device utilizes Electronic Program Guide (EPG) data to schedule the start and stop recording times for television programs on each available broadcast channel. The EPG data may be provided by a third party EPG provider, which obtains the scheduling data (e.g., dates, times, titles, scheduled run times, etc.) from broadcasters, normalizes the data, and provides it in a packaged format to video service delivery providers (e.g., cable, satellite, Internet service providers).
The DVR may also be a network DVR (nDVR) (also known as a network PVR (nPVR)) that may store recordings at a location other than an end-user's private home. For instance, an end-user's recorded television program may be stored at a remote server, such as at a video service delivery provider's central server, instead of at an end-user's local DVR device. Essentially, an nDVR may implement a traditional DVR with network based storage.